Why I won’t be welcoming Ann Widdecombe to Gloucester

Ann Widdecombe will headline the Brexit party rally which will take place in Gloucester tomorrow on the eve of the Euro elections this week. Gloucester is a city that in so many ways reflects the challenges across the country, our demography is similar to the national average, the economy has faced a huge decline in manufacturing jobs, whilst zero hour contracts have exploded, our schools are at breaking point, and we have a housing and homelessness crisis.

Nigel Farage and his well oiled Brexit party want communities like us in Gloucester to put all the challenges we face down to Brexit not being delivered. Widdecombe is using a new party as a vehicle to exploit the damaged landscape left from the Conservative party she fled. Whoever thought Ann Widdecombe would be the acceptable face of anything, but by bringing in known politicians the Brexit Party are trying to whitewash moments like Farage’s infamous breaking point poster. However Gloucester Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers and friends from the World Cafe in Gloucester won’t forget that.

Widdecombe’s track record in Parliament show how at odds she is with Gloucester. Our pride march gets bigger each year and is full of young people celebrating LBGT rights, whereas Widdecombe voted against every piece of LGBT legislation and last year said #metoo is ‘trivial whinging’. Gloucester Labour are finding significant support from school strikers to local businesses for a Green New Deal, climate change legislation being something Widdecombe always voted against. EU elections and Brexit are enough to turn anyone off politics, but underneath the headlines communities like ours in Gloucester are quietly fighting for the things that will see off Farage and his Brexit party for good.